20 Graphically Insane Games to Look Forward to in 2012

Reith writes: "Games get more daring and intelligent each year, and I don't just mean in terms of AI and technical innovations. Having written a series of features already on what to expect from 2012, I approached this particular feature with a sense of dread, expecting nothing more than coining a list of highly similar games where graphics become more of a contest than a method of expression. 2012 is lifting my spirits though, as my research has reminded me of the wealth of intriguing and visually original titles that await us in new year. Here's 20 of them for your perusal. "
(PC, PS Vita, PS3)

Diablo 3 has shitty graphics...Well the Beta does at least..I'm in it...also my avatar is the games launch shortcut so it's not like I'm not a fan it's an extremely well made game...the graphics are shit though...

lol those games blow anything on the xbox. Fortunately ps3 has artstyle worked out for its games that they are more desirable to look at. I do think that metro last light might be the best looking game technically next year though. PC > ALL

Fooooooour disagreeeeees lolz ..... n4g is filled with kids ... naaaah it was my bad ..... ps3 got unlimited power and Xbox360 games can be optimized soo much that it can harness 200% power of that toy ... lol the first machine on planet that works at over 100% efficiency lolz LMAO =)) =))

You do know that disagrees don't take away your bubbles, right? It just means that people don't agree with what you're saying. Keep comments to yourself about how some people don't like what your opinion is.

Have you seen Metro: 2033 on PC max? And I mean in person, not some youtube compressed video. As awesome as The Last of Us will be, it won't be anything compared to the new Metro when it comes out. 2033 looked amazing and I'm sure the new one will top 2033 by a fair margin.

Yes, I have seen it, and I have Metro 2033 on my gaming PC. But where did you read something like "I don't think Metro: Last Light look good", because I really think it looks way better than The Last of Us.

is the person that disagreed with what you said, trying to say themselves that you aren't looking forward to gta5?...how do they know you, better than yourself?..is this you from the future?..warning you not to get your hopes up?..

Dude, the trailer was all in-engine and if it has to run on the 360/PS3 it won't look better than what we seen. If you play GTA IV on the 360/PS3 and play it on PC you'll know exactly what I'm talking about in regards to the graphics fidelity issue that GTA V will face.

The hardware is more than six years old and games are being held back to accomodate the old GPUs and limited amounts of half-gigabyte RAM. It doesn't matter if it's a trailer or not, technically you CANNOT have an open-world more detailed and graphically rich than what we seen in GTA IV if they plan to keep using Euphoria (which they will) and if it plans to keep running on RAGE (which it does) and they plan to add MORE gameplay mechanics.

Graphically insane? Not by a long-shot. A decent looking open-world action game for the consoles? Definitely.

the trailer is directly taken from a PS3. it says that before the trailer if you download it from the ps store. it was definately in engine.it may have been in game. graphics wise its what weve all seen from uncharted, nothing new there. just improved character models

You're lying to yourself if you believe that. There wasn't an actual gameplay trailer showing the graphics. I'm not hyping this shit up till I see some gameplay with actual in game graphics.

Regardless of whether it's Naughty Dog or not, that means nothing to me.

In my opinion, the last of us don't belong on that list, until we see some gameplay, matter fact most of the games don't belong on that list, but hey this is just MY OPINION.

All I'm saying is, wait till we see more before hyping this game up, we barely know anything about it.

Lmfao... plus he put Sly cooper 4 ? Plus the author reason is

"Those uninitiated with Sly’s tight and refined stealth platforming gameplay will be forgiven for just admiring the pretty cel-shading, as it is rather stunning. The Sly Cooper HD collection on PS3 looked better than most PS3 exclusive games, despite being a compilation of HD remakes from the previous generation. With that in mind, we can only begin to imagine how awesome a Sly game built for the PS3 from the ground up will look."

After seeing Uncharted 3, are you really going to doubt that the Last of Us won't look good? It does belong on that list. It may not look exactly like the trailer but it will look good. Do you have a vendetta against ND to believe that The Last of Us won't look good?

@AdmiralSnake: Dude, that was all in-engine. Wasn't live gameplay, but it was exactly what you can expect from the game's graphics.

How do I know that? Pop quiz: what trailer for a PS3 exclusive hasn't been in engine? What trailer for a first party Sony game has been CGI?

Answer: None.

"All I'm saying is, wait till we see more before hyping this game up, we barely know anything about it."

I respect that. On my side, I know that it's made by Naughty Dog. What else do I NEED to know? It means nothing to you, perhaps, but they're one of the very best developers in this industry. If that means nothing to you, that sounds like a personal problem.

Meh, there more than likely wont be anything that impresses me graphically on these consoles, I've pretty much seen all the tricks of the trade. The only game, graphically, that I'll pay mind to is Metro: Last Light . 4A was doing some stuff that I still haven't seen in other games which gave it a certain and distinct look. Even on the 360...

Which is what N4G is filled with, so... when I become a fanboy please let me know.

However what I said is the truth. Why put a game on the list based off of a CGI trailer, with no gameplay trailer ?

Wait I forgot... it's because they're Naughty dog... based on the responses.

@theunleashed64

Question, was that the actual in game graphics ? No console can produce graphics like that... you must be kidding.

See I wasted time on here responding to nonsense. Point is the last of us shouldn't be on this list.

The only crap responses I've seen, is people basically telling me, it's "expected to have good graphics because it's being developed by Naughty Dog"

Yes what I said is indeed the truth, it shouldn't be listed here for that reason or any other, until we see some actual GAMEPLAY.

End of the day.... we all know that isn't the actual graphics, and if you believe that is what the final product will look like, think again, or did we not remember how Uncharted 3 didn't look as great as when it was introduced at e3 ? Oh okay then.

What I said was "my opinion" was most of those games don't belong there, because Metro is missing, Diablo is missing and plenty of other games to.

However what is the TRUTH in my posts, is that isn't the actual graphics of the game, and the previous responses basically said to me, it's naughty dog, so it's expected.... -_-.

wait a minute first you said "my opinion" and "in my opinion" then your later response which is to bleach says "what i said is the truth" so that means you throwing that around as fact rather than an actual opinion. and wrong the trailer for the last of us is not CGI it's captured from a ps3 using naughty dog's engine.

That trailer is not CGI. Its pre-rendered in-engine footage just like Uncharted cutscenes. It wont look as good in gameplay sections but the end result wont be too far off and the improvements are noticeable from Uncharted 2/3 to The Last of us.

I think the PS3 and 360 need to let the graphics tide go away for good for the rest of the gen. Big budget games should focus entirely on pushing boundaries gameplay-wise.

I'd rather play a game with an insane amount of guys running around on the screen than have a game look gorgeous but only have two or three competent AI working.

The biggest problem the consoles face now is competing with the PC ports, which are now so far ahead graphically it's just not even compare-worthy.

I'd like to see more games like Red Dead Redemption, The Ballad of Gay Tony or the Lost and Damned -- where story and gameplay takes precedence over graphics. I'd also like to see more character driven stories like Fight Night Champion and Heavy Rain.

I hope Naughty Dog doesn't go all-out on the graphics for The Last of Us, because I'd rather have a deep gameplay experience rather than semi-deep graphics with a mediocre gameplay experience.

I still think PC games are left out because the graphical fidelity of a game on PC is subject to the hardware of the individual. As such, the same PC game can look like a PS2 game, or it can look far better than even the reasonable expectations of the next generation of consoles.

When you think of it that way, The Witcher 2 CAN be the best-looking game out there. Or it can look pretty average. Depends on your machine.

On the other hand, Uncharted 2, for example, will look just as amazing on every PS3 out there.

why do PC guys always discourage the console owners. We get it. PC smacks the consoles into next week when it comes to graphics but FFS!! stop reminding the world about it. Its pathetic and makes the PC crowd look very immature.

Well, hell, they need to do SOMETHING to justify the insane amount of money they spent on their rigs. If it makes them feel better about themselves, I say have at it. I'll be chilling and playing games on my 60" HDTV while chilling on my couch vis my PS3.

And you paid how much for that 60" TV? Over $1400? Then the cost of the PS3 to go with it?

Hmmm....For $1000 I can build a PC rig that has two Nvidia mid range cards running in SLI or AMD cards running games like BF3 and others at maximum. For another $400 I can buy three 24" 1080P monitors and run eyefinity or Nvidia's three monitor setup for panoramic view gaming at resolutions that your PS3 could NEVER EVER achieve...

And the three monitor setup with that PC gaming rig is actually cheaper than your 60" HDTV with your PS3. Lets not even factor in the cost of console games being $60...when the same PC game is cheaper.

The cost of your setup is slightly more than that PC rig and that PC rig hands the PS3 its ass. So that's an INSANE cost when YOUR PS3 setup cost more? Go at it...as you say....

Moreover I can play those same PC games on a 60" HDTV or ANY HDTV using a PS3, or Xbox360 or even a Wii controller If I want to...CHILLING ON MY COUCH...And if I had the money, I could hook up three or more 60" HDTV's to play games.

Can your PS3 or Xbox360 do that? Hell it barley does 720p and above 30 fps using real anti-aliasing for...

And the added bonus is I don't pay $60 for most of the very same games on consoles that are on the PC.

To answer your question, my 60" cost me $450. Add the cost of the PS3, and now you've got $700. So, no, my setup isn't slightly more expensive than the PC setup. In fact, the PC setup is more than double my cost.

Besides, my earlier comment wasn't against PC gamers in general, but simply the fanboys that seem to always pop up running their mouths about how much better PC gaming is than console gaming when no one asked.

Nice work on that write up, but sorry man; I'm not a PC gamer, so I didn't care enough to click on any of the links you provided. Sounds like a sweet setup, though.

And the same reason that PS3 fanboys go on and on about how PS3 exclusives look better than anything and leave all other games in the dust etc. Or fanboys going on about how their console of choice has more/better/more popular exclusives.

Fanboys will always do everything they can to make their platform seem better and graphics is something that can easily be shown on the internet.

Also it's pretty annoying seeing console fanboys going on about how their console has the best graphics when they actually often look pretty poor when compared to a game running on a good PC, if console fanboys are going to do it why shouldn't the fanboys with the best graphics? Sure it's childish but that's all fanboyism really.

But hey what do I know I love Dungeons of Dreadmor and that game is ugly as shit.

Looking forward to see whats coming on pc next year as consoles are showing their age and graphics are looking un impressive as compared to DX11 games i started this gen in 2005 ive seen all im going to see.

Have to disagree with u. TLOU trailer was made from a ps3 system and its made by ND (enough said). if u look at the uncharted games u will come to see The Last of Us graphics will be close to Uncharted, just different styles. psn: cedaridge / xbl: cedaridge

ps3 and xbox 360 graphics is Becoming DATED but in a good way. Im feelin "The Last of Us" but the Graphics Level of this game will not be that much improve from Uncharted games. just mean Developers our comfortable with ps3/360 and u should not be gettin CRAZY lookin ps3 ports. psn: cedaridge / xbl: cedaridge